Traders at the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) market in Navi Mumbai have voiced their concerns over losses caused by the arrival of onions procured by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed).
The Nafed onions sold at a lower price than that of the produce coming directly from farmers are preferred by customers, they said, adding, that would also bring losses to the farmers. “On Wednesday, around 70 trucks of onions from farmers and five from Nafed reached the market. While the farmer’s onions are sold between ₹22 and ₹26 per kg, the Nafed onions cost ₹18 to ₹20. We are afraid that we would have to bring down the rate of the farmer’s produce and suffer losses,” Chandrakant Ramane, an onion trader, said.
Another trader Raju Shelke said the government should not have stopped the export of onions. “Exports will boost the economy which is down anyway. On Thursday, there were no Nafed onions and the farmer’s produce reached in around 42 trucks. But if in the week, the Nafed onions continue to come, the farmers will suffer huge losses.”
Mr. Shelke further said that of the total number of onions that reach the market on a given day, 70% are of good quality and 30% are of poor quality. “It won’t be fair to reduce the price of the good quality onions due to the low pricing of the poor quality ones.”
Manohar Totlani, another onion trader, said that instead of stopping the export of onions, the government should increase the duty. “If we stop the export, rival countries might take advantage and increase their export and earn high revenues,” Mr. Totalani said.
Traders anticipate that due to lack of stock of onions, the price of the produce might increase in the coming days.
